9 Essential Investing Tips for Young Investors

Do you want to explore more lucrative ways to build a corpus for your retirement or dreams than your savings account? Start investing early. Contrary to popular belief, not all investments are high-risk. There are various tiers, risk appetites, instruments, and modes of investing that help you derive maximum benefits from the principal invested.

As of September 2024, investments in India accounted for 30.5% of its Nominal GDP, reflecting increased confidence and participation in the markets.

Starting young gives your principal more time to compound over time, building a larger corpus by the end of the term. It helps you counter inflation and enjoy higher profits (because your risk appetite is typically high when you are young).

If you wish to capitalize on the highest potential of investments, start investing young. Through this blog, you will gain beginner investing advice on how to start investing young and reap the benefits of the market in the long term in 9 essential tips.

Why Young Investors Have a Unique Advantage

According to the Economic Times, the investment market had 40% of investors under the age of 30 (September 2024), signifying that the young are now more aware of their money and are actively participating in the market.

For these young investors, here is a list of 9 essential tips on how to build wealth early:

1. Start Early to Harness the Power of Compounding

Investing early in life helps you learn financial responsibility and independence, and you are able to set a discipline for yourself that helps you in the future. Your principal stays invested in the market for longer, experiencing more compounding over the years. Even if your investments experience a setback, you get more recovery time before retirement to make up for the lost value.

Consider two individuals, A and B:

• A starts investing ₹10,000 each year at the age of 25, investing for 10 years at an annual return of 10%. At the age of 35, A stops adding more money but lets the investment grow itself at 10% annual return.

• B waits until he is 35 to invest ₹10,000 each year at the same annual return.

• By the time A is 60 years old, he will have invested about ₹1,00,000 over 10 years, and his investments will have become ₹11,44,000. On the other hand, B’s will only amount to ₹10,83,000, even though he will have invested ₹2,50,000 over 25 years. That is the power of compounding.
  

2. Define Your Financial Goals

Every investment should have a purpose. Think about where you plan to utilize the corpus, whether for retirement, buying a house, travelling, education, or any other reason. This will determine the type of investment and risk level you would need to work with.

Categorize your goals into:

• Short-term (1 to 3 years): Safer options like FDs or liquid funds help you preserve capital while giving reasonable growth.

• Medium-term (3 to 10 years): Balanced mutual funds for young investors or recurring deposits offer good growth with mild risk factors.

• Long-term (retirement): Focus your investment on growth assets like equity, mutual funds, stocks, etc., to capitalize on the power of compounding.
  

Set realistic targets based on the amount you can afford to invest after accounting for your living expenses. This will help you stay invested for longer without reducing the principal.

3. Educate Yourself About Different Investment Options

Various investment instruments allow you to enter the market. For example, there are stocks that you can trade actively on daily values to capitalize on surges. Mutual funds pool money from multiple investors to offer a diversified portfolio managed by professionals. Other options like bonds, equity, EFTs, etc., offer unique benefits depending on your risk appetite.

Educate yourself about these instruments and explore the risk and return profiles of each asset class. This knowledge empowers you to make informed investment choices that allow you to invest comfortably while keeping risk tolerable and returns profitable.

4. Build a Diversified Portfolio

Remember the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”? Diversifying your portfolio helps you distribute your principal across various asset classes, industries, geographies, and instruments. This way, if one investment experiences a loss, the others remain unaffected and continue to grow.

A diversified portfolio balances the risk between your investments, allowing you to experiment with high-risk-high-return investments while you have the backup of stable investments as well. It helps you navigate market volatility by distributing your finances across different sectors.

For example, say that you invest proportionately in stocks, debt, and gold bonds. However, the stock market underperforms and remains low for a month. Your investments absorb the losses because the debt and gold bond investments balance the overall returns.

5. Start with Low-Cost Investment Vehicles

Low-cost investments like index funds and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are simple to invest in and allow you to gain broad exposure in the market. These funds offer lower fees compared to actively managed funds because they are passively managed.

High fees can reduce your returns over time, especially if the compounding isn’t adequate to account for this expense.

For example, a principal of ₹5,00,000 at 10% (annual) grows to ₹24.27 lakh at a 2% fee, whereas it grows to ₹30.39 lakhs at a 0.5% fee. You can save the ₹6 lakh difference by choosing the low-cost option.

6. Understand Risk and Choose Investments Based on Your Tolerance

It is important to assess your risk appetite. How much fluctuation are you able to tolerate in your investments? Consider factors like losing some profit now to gain more in 10 years, your investment stability, etc., to understand how much risk you are able to take.

The type of investment you choose also determines your risk factors. For example, you should make short-term investments in low-risk instruments. This way, you will gain maximum profits at the lowest costs.

It is best to balance your portfolio by pairing high-risk investments with safer options. For example, your portfolio can have a good mix of stocks, equity, gold, and bonds. This balances the risk of stocks and equity against the stability of gold and bonds.

Additionally, you should revisit your portfolio from time to time to rebalance it. Rebalancing makes adjustments to your asset classes periodically to keep them aligned with your risk tolerance and investment goals. Rebalancing allows you to adapt to changing life circumstances, like welcoming a new baby.

7. Stick to a Long-Term Strategy

Movies and pop culture have pitted investments as a high-speed game of buying and selling at the right time. While that is true to some extent, that is not the whole picture.

In fact, a study by Morgan Stanley shows that holding money in five-year investments reduces money loss to 11% and for ten years, it reduces to 3%. If you try to time the market for investment opportunities, you may end up selling for low prices and buying costly since the market is volatile and unpredictable.

Instead, stay invested and focus on long-term growth for stable and consistent results. The power of compounding works in your favor when you hold on to your assets for longer. Even if there is a panic situation in the market when it crashes, or if there is a bull trend and the values soar, avoid making emotional decisions and stay invested.

There is a better chance of gaining more returns over the long term than actively trading without expert help.

8. Automate Your Investments with SIPs

SIPs are among the best investment strategies for beginners. SIPs (Systematic Investment Plans) are a method of investing in mutual funds where a fixed amount (say ₹5,000) is automatically invested at decided intervals (say monthly). Automatic SIPs help you cultivate the habit of investing and saving regularly, without fail.

SIPs mitigate market volatility through rupee cost averaging, which helps lower the average cost per unit over time. You can start SIPs with as little as ₹500 per month, which has the potential to become ₹1,03,250 (approx.) in 10 years at a 10% return rate (fees not included).

Note: Mutual funds are subject to market risks. Mutual fund returns are market-linked and not guaranteed.

AssetPlus helps you quickly start your first SIP:

• Log in to your AssetPlus account.

• Go to the "Fund Finder" section.

• Enter a fund name and set the SIP amount.

• Choose a mode (one-time or SIP).

• Set the tenure and click on "Find Funds" to select your desired fund and start your SIP.
  

9. Keep Learning and Seek Professional Advice

Just like the market is a dynamic entity, so are investments and their concepts. Investment patterns change based on trends, geopolitical, economic, global, and other aspects. Constant learning helps you stay aware of your investment scenario and make informed decisions.

In the situation where you require a major overhaul to your investment strategies, or if your goals have changed, consult a financial advisor to help you readjust your portfolio. You can also leverage the plethora of investment courses and online resources to gain a better understanding of the landscape.

Conclusion

Investment is a truly rewarding method of setting aside money for your goals. However, to do it right, you must identify your goals and start investing early. It is important to educate yourself about the terminology used in this industry to build a diversified portfolio successfully.

Start with low-cost investment while deeply understanding the risk profile of your asset classes. Make sure to stay invested for the long term to gain compounding benefits – you can do that by setting up automated SIPs.

Even if it is a small amount, investing early and staying invested help you capitalize on the true value of the market. Use these saving and investing tips to start your journey today.

Remember: "Start early, stay consistent, and let compounding do the heavy lifting."

AssetPlus helps you get started with your investment journey by providing a secure, reliable platform to manage your mutual funds and SIPs through a friendly interface. To start investing in mutual funds today, visit the website!

You can sign up for free and start your investments within a few clicks here.